God Bless, Rather, God Save America
Posted by David Wheaton | Friday, July 2, 2010 | 1:01 pm CT
Podcast: Download (Duration: 50:45 — 8.7MB)
Guest: Dr. Michael Youssef, founder, Leading the Way Ministries
“[If] My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
234 years ago, on July 4th, 1776, the fledgling American colonies declared their independence from monarchy rule in England. Over time, the United States, with its Christian foundations, grew into the most free and prosperous nation history has ever known. One could truly say, “God blessed America.”
But is that what Christians should be calling on God to do now — bless America — or, in light of current conditions such as compromising churches and worldly Christians, unbiblical political leadership, and a hedonistic culture, should we rather be calling on God to save America? On what basis does God bless or curse a nation and how can the above passage from the Old Testament apply to America in 2010?
Dr. Michael Youssef, pastor and founder of the worldwide ministry, Leading the Way, will join us this Independence Day weekend on The Christian Worldview to tell us how he grew up in a socialistic dictatorship in Egypt, and how he, now an American citizen, is deeply concerned for this nation. He is calling on Bible-believing Christians to join together in the “God Save America” daily prayer covenant from July 4th to November 2nd of this year. Please consider joining in.
The Christian Worldview Transcript
Date: July 3, 2010
Host: David Wheaton
Topic: God Bless, Rather, God Save America
Guest: Dr. Michael Youssef, founder, Leading the Way Ministries
DAVID WHEATON: God Bless, Rather, God Save America. That is the topic for today on The Christian Worldview where the mission is to think biblically about all matters of life and faith so that we can then live accordingly, and to share the Good News that Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be, the Way, the Truth and the Life; that His Word is both relevant and our basis for living in this modern world. I am David Wheaton, the host of The Christian Worldview. Our official website is TheChristianWorldview.com.
Our National Presenting Sponsor is Summit Ministries, the very best in Christian worldview resources, conferences and curricula. Their website is Summit.org. We are also supported by two other national sponsors, The Masters College and The S. Lewis Johnson Institute and of course, listeners like you.
So glad you joined us this weekend on The Christian Worldview. It is Independence Weekend and I hope you and your family have a wonderful one celebrating the Declaration of Independence. I think it actually occurred on July 2, 1776 but it was publicized a couple of days later on July 4 and that is the day we celebrate it. In the 234 years of this country, we have had the most prosperous and free nation that has ever existed. One could truly say, God bless America but is that what Christians should be calling on God to do now, to bless America? Or in light of what is going on in this country and within the church, should we be calling on God to save America?
Our guest today on The Christian Worldview is Dr. Michael Youssef. He is the Pastor and founder of the worldwide ministry, Leading the Way. He is going to join us today to talk about his prayer covenant that he is putting forward, starting tomorrow on Independence Day about God Save America. Here is Dr. Michael Youssef.
DAVID: Dr. Youssef, you have had a pretty unusual background. You were born in Egypt; you lived in Lebanon and in Australia before coming to the United States. In 1984, you became an American citizen. You have this God Save America covenant to pray for this country starting on July 4, that is tomorrow, through election day, November 2 of this year. Some might see from the outside that you are somewhat an unusual person to be spearheading this prayer covenant for America having so spent so much of your life outside of America. What inspired you to do this that you are seeing going on in America right now that you are calling for this prayer for this extended period of time right now in America’s history?
DR. MICHAEL YOUSSEF: Those of my listeners and viewers of radio and television through the years know that I am an evangelist by nature. I focus on teaching and Bible preaching and I really have not been involved in issues although I deeply love this country. I am one of those immigrants who came to this country from a dictatorship and for the last 35 years I have been in the United States. It was a longing of my heart since I was a boy growing up under the dictatorship of Mr. Nasser and I saw what socialism has done to a country that used to be the breadbasket of the region; now it is a basket case. I have begun to sense the same deja vu all over again as it were.
I began to pray earnestly. I would wake up in the middle of the night and I just pray to the Lord. I am in my 60s now so I am not a young man anymore and I was crying to the Lord on behalf of America. My love for America as an immigrant is not one of those people who want to change it. I love the fact that America was founded on biblical principles and men and women who really knew God and trusted God, they knelt as they signed the Constitution. I love this country the way it is. We don’t want to change it. We don’t want to radicalize it because it was that biblical foundation that made America to be the platform for gospel preaching around the world. There is not doubt about it that the ministry and the mission and the services that are given to the world from America are unprecedented in the whole world.
I began to be concerned, specifically about the preaching of the gospel. What would happen when we lose our freedom? As I began to pray, the Lord says, call other people to pray with you. I began to really ask what does that mean, how? I am calling for 100,000 people to sign a covenant with me by going to GodSaveOurCountry.com and sign the covenant and pray daily for the United States all the way until November 2. We will have resources available for everyone who signs up. We will be sending a weekly way of how to pray and an encouragement. Someone will say, how can I pray for America? We will be very specific; we will give you information on how to pray. This is our ministry, our labor of love, to everyone who would sign up to say, yes, I will daily pray for this country so that God somehow in his mercy will deliver us from the direction in which we seem to be going.
I personally believe that all of our problems, our economic problems, I am not an economist, political problems, I am not a politician, but all of our problems stem from one core and that is spiritual problems. We have lost our way. The churches have ceased to preach the gospel. One pastor after another is embracing universalism, denying the truth of the gospel. The people in the pews are confused. When they are confused, they have no discernment as to who to vote for.
I am praying for a spiritual awakening that will come to God’s people as they look into the future and become as alarmed as I am.
DAVID: Dr. Michael Youssef joins us today this Independence Day weekend here on The Christian Worldview radio program. He is the founder of Leading the Way Ministries. Their website is LeadingTheWay.org. You can also find out about this prayer covenant that Michael Youssef is putting forward at LeadingTheWay.org. In the covenant, Dr. Youssef, you say you are asking for 100,000 Bible believing Americans to join you in praying for our nation from July 4 to November 2, 2010. You say we will be thanking God for the rich Christian history of America, offering prayers of repentance for individual and national sin, petitioning God for His blessing on America, praying to God for wisdom and discernment for elected officials and asking God for boldness and strength to share truth with friends and neighbors. That is off the website for the covenant to pray for America, God Save America.
You set an endpoint of election day. Is this prayer that people are going to be praying for America, is this mainly about political change in America for our leaders or this Obama administration or does it go beyond that?
DR. YOUSSEF: I think it is much deeper than that. We are praying about the core problem and that is a spiritual awakening. Of course, what is happening in Congress and the administration and the direction that the whole leadership in Washington is taking us is the wrong one. Make no mistake about it, and I have experienced it first hand, you cannot have socialism without authoritarianism. With Authoritarianism you are going to get loss of freedoms. All the freedoms that the Constitution, The Bill of Rights and all the freedoms that we have been privileged to have will slowly but surely be dismantled because that is socialism. It is like a plant that only grows when there is no freedom.
That is my biggest concern that if God is going to give us a spiritual revival, awaken us from our sleep as it were and we rise up and see that we are going in the wrong direction, we need to go back to God. As we go back to God, God will restore these freedoms to us. God is the one who gave us those freedoms. The founding fathers in all of their deliberation as you see it and read it, were convinced that God is the author of freedom, not them. They were just conduits. Now we are seeing the government as the “big daddy.” They are the ones who are going to dispense freedom. They are the ones who are going to dispense money. They are the ones who are going to dispense everything. We are in a very dangerous point in the history of this nation.
DAVID: You have experience with socialism growing up over in Egypt with a dictatorship type government, Dr. Youssef. I am going to read a short quote that I read actually in a reader comment to an article that I saw on the internet. I think it is actually been circulated some, so maybe you have heard this as well. It goes like this, “The danger to America is not President Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama Presidency than to restore the necessary common sense in good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their President. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama who is a mere symptom of what ails us. Blaming him should not blind anyone to the vast confederacies of people that made him their prince. The republic can survive a Barack Obama who is after all merely (and he uses a derogatory term for the President which I won’t use). It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their President.”
Dr. Youssef, basically what is being said here is President Barack Obama and his unbiblical values that I think every Bible believing Christian recognizes from everything to do with the homosexual agenda to the way he treats our enemies, to the way he treats Israel, to all the different policies, the socialistic economic policies that are unbiblical and against freedom, those kind of things, everyone would see that but are we pointing to the wrong person? In other words, shouldn’t we be praying more for the fact that the American people, that there can be revival amongst the American people because whom they elect is merely a representation of who they are?
DR. YOUSSEF: I couldn’t agree more. I was speaking to several hundred of the men of my church. This was months ago and I said to them that I had no beef with President Obama. I really don’t, I pray for the man. My biggest worry and concern is the people who have elected him. I said this months ago and it is amazing because when you realize the fact that as goes the pulpit, so goes the pew. So as goes the pew, goes society. For so many years we have watered down, modified, changed the gospel and look at the statistics from the pew research and everywhere else, only 60% of so-called Evangelicals believe that Jesus is the only way which is the very tenant of the Christian faith. That means 40% of so-called Evangelicals don’t believe the gospel. If they don’t believe the gospel, they aren’t going to vote for people who have discernment and understanding and share biblical values because they don’t know them themselves. That is why my cry is not against the government or against this group or that group. I am saying to my fellow Christians, those knees who have not yet bowed down to Bail, to go to the Lord and cry to Him on behalf of America. If God wakes us up, we are the ones who are going to make or break. We are the ones who are going to vote with discernment and that is why my focus is the American people.
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DAVID: We are talking today about God Bless, Rather God Save America. With everything Christians see going on in this country right now from politics to culture within the church, should we really calling on God to bless America or should we really be calling on God to Save America at this point? I am speaking with Dr. Michael Youssef; he is the founder of Leading the Way Ministries.
Dr. Youssef you talked about the problems, not necessarily within the administration and there are some because of their unbiblical worldview, but the problems with the general population of America. Let’s drill down more specifically into the Christian culture, for lack of a better word, in America. You talked about the pulpits that the full council of God isn’t being preached by our pastors. You talked about churches and there is a reticence to adhere to strong and sound doctrine in scripture. Churches are becoming weaker. We talk about individual Christians and their own lives. Their own lives aren’t much different than the world from the standpoint of divorce or the way they live their lives. There is a great need for sanctification. There is a great need for Christians to share their faith. When we look at some of these things and we see the problems inherent in American Christianity, what can be done, we talk about prayer, but what else can be done to turn this around from a Christian standpoint within the Christian community in America?
DR. YOUSSEF: I tell people and I make no bones about it in all of our radio and television programming, I tell them openly that if you in one of those churches that absolutely does not uphold, proclaim, defend and stand for the gospel and the proclamation of the gospel, you need to run as fast as you can. The problem is so many people sitting in the pews know in their hearts that these preachers have departed from the truth yet they just sit there and they keep on supporting those churches. I used to belong to a mainline, I was ordained in one of the mainline denominations, the best know mainline; I was an Episcopalian. Twenty years ago, I saw the writing on the wall and I began to take a stand within the denomination and I said, thus says the Lord. Well I was called every name in the book by my fellow clergy, but that is ok. That is the price of the gospel; that is the price we are supposed to pay for standing for the truth. Ultimately I was defrocked because of preaching of the gospel. However, the church that I started with 28 people now has 4000 – 5000 people because God honored His proclamation of the word. I want to be very careful, but a lot of preachers are so worried about losing members that they themselves compromise the truth. Don’t worry about losing members. God is the one who is going to bless you. God is the one who is going to honor your proclamation of the gospel.
It is both for the preacher who knows he is compromising and to the layman who is sitting in the pew that knows that the preacher is compromising, there has to be a stand. They need to take a stand and either get out of that church or make a change in that church and the other needs to repent.
DAVID: Again, Dr. Michael Youssef, you are listening today here on The Christian Worldview. He is the founding pastor of the Church of the Apostles that is in Atlanta, GA. Their website is LeadingTheWay.org. What is going to be the evidence that this prayer covenant, and for lack of a better word, worked? How are we going to know that God heard our prayer and we see some change in this country?
DR. YOUSSEF: I don’t know. I honestly don’t know the answer to that question. I did this in obedience. I didn’t want to do it. As a matter of fact, when I was praying and the Lord began to lay that on my heart, I said, Lord there are other people who are better known, other people who can do a better job and I really was reluctant to do this. The Lord says, I choose unlikely people just go and do what I ask you to do, so I am really doing this in obedience. In the past whenever God’s people have come to Him and cried to Him in genuine faith and trusting in Him, believing that the God who said, call upon Me, will answer us, they always knew and the evidence was there. I certainly don’t want to put God in a box as to who we are going to see this but I know that we will. I just believe that but I don’t know how. I can’t say, well we are going to have x number of this or this is going to happen. I don’t want to presume on the Lord. I am coming to Him with others in obedience believing He is going to make the changes that in His sovereign plan will bring about.
DAVID: It is going to be interesting because as we know, when the people of God get together to earnestly pray, God hears and He answers and it will be interesting to see how He answers this prayer of tens of thousands of Bible believing Americans for the God Save America Covenant to pray for this country. By the way, I titled this program God Bless, Rather God Save America. We are so quick to say God bless America, but you wonder when God looks at America right now, yes there are many good things that this country does and has stood for in the past, you wonder how God can bless a country where so much of the country goes against and rejects His word, God Himself in so many ways. That is why I say instead of praying for God to bless America; we need to pray for God to save America.
DR. YOUSSEF: That is exactly right. That is why I did not even have the burden to pray for God to bless America and I will tell you very simply, because God has blessed America for 240 years. You know what happened? We focused on the blessing, not the Blesser. That is really our downfall; our blessing has been our downfall. Right now, we are in such spiritual disarray that we need to cry to Him that He may save us. I am talking about saving us generally and if it pleases Him, that He would save us as a Republic.
DAVID: I want to read something from your website, LeadingTheWay.org about what Leading The Way is about. It is a worldwide ministry that leads the way for people living in spiritual darkness to discover the light of Christ through the creative use of media and on the ground ministry teams. TV and radio programs are broadcast in twenty languages and are available in more than 200 countries. Skipping further down . . . A new television satellite network called The Kingdom Sat, our new 24/7 satellite television channel that launched in March 2009. The first Christian television channel permitted on an Arabic satellite platform, that is Nile Sat reaching into 120 million homes in 66 countries in Arabic.
You are clearly reaching out into the Arabic, the Muslim world. With you background, being born and raised in Egypt, spending time in Lebanon, talk about, from our experience Dr. Youssef, how you think the general Muslim world, more of the moderate type Muslims, view America right now and this President. What is your sense of how they see America?
DR. YOUSSEF: There is a report recently that is an interview with the Foreign Minister of Egypt, who is considered to be a moderate Muslim, a part of the establishment, saying that when he met with Obama one on one, Obama assured him that he is a Muslim and that he will take care of Israel once he takes care of the economic problems. Now this was circulating around. It has been in some reputable interviews given to Arab television. Now that is how some moderate Muslims want to see Obama, one of them, therefore he is going to be on their side. The radical Muslims, of course, would never accept that because they couldn’t even accept Anwar Sadat, one of them, who is considered to be a devout Muslim, because he shook the hands of an Israeli Prime Minister.
It is a hodge podge and mish mash in the Arab world. The fundamentalists will never accept anybody who is less than fundamentalist and the moderates are really trying to say hey, he is one of us. Therefore, America is not very far from becoming very Islamic friendly. You take for example just a few weeks ago in Dearborn, Michigan; about four young men evangelists who were sharing Christ in and Islamic Festival in Dearborn were arrested and put in prison. This is like having a sharia law in Dearborn, not the First Amendment.
Then in England recently, an evangelist was arrested because he was witnessing to a Muslim in the street. They find those things in the Arab world, places like Egypt where 15% of the population are Christians, yet they are not allowed to talk about their faith outside the walls of the churches. This is coming to America, coming to England; it really should alarm every freedom-loving person around.
For me, I had a choice. I could curse the darkness and talk about the danger of fundamentalist Islam or I can go and take the light of Christ and I felt that God has positioned me in such a privileged place to be able to take the gospel into the bedroom and living rooms of every Muslim in the Arab world and in Europe. So we launched the satellite channels, Kingdom Sat, where 24 hours a day we are proclaiming the gospel. We were invited as the first Christian satellite channel. We were broadcasting on a European platform, but now SAT, which is an Arab satellite platform, invited us to broadcast, which is much better. Of course we have a much wider audience, literally everybody. Take example Kuwait, 97% have dishes. The gulf countries, 98% have dishes. Even a poor country like Morocco, 60% of the people have satellite dishes. We are reaching a vast majority of people and of course, the response has been phenomenal. People are responding, we never heard this, we never understood this and we are proclaiming Christ and Christ alone. I am not attacking their religion, I don’t have to. I am lifting Christ and Christ Himself is drawing people to Himself.
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DAVID: Today on the program we have been speaking with Dr. Michael Youssef. Most of you know who Dr. Youssef is; he is the founder and the pastor of Leading the Way Ministries. They are a worldwide, international ministry as you head there in the last answer before the break, they are on satellite TV over in the Arab world. We are talking about the topic, God Bless America or should we be calling on God to Save America?
My question today is this. Here is the verse from 2 Chronicles that we often read, 2 Chronicles 7:14, If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. That is what God said to Solomon right at the dedication of the temple. There are more verses surrounding it that I will read in the last segment, but that is the key verse that most people know about. We see it come through in e-mail chains and so forth that our country needs to repent. The question for you today is, is this verse applicable to America in the year 2010 or was that just for Israel? Number two, on what basis does God bless or curse a nation? Is it the leaders, is it the people, is it the state of the churches? In other words, what do we have to do as a country to know go from God save us, to God you can bless us. How does that work?
DAVID: What is your sense of what is going on in the Middle East right now from a standpoint of Israel and her neighbors and what do you think could take place in the near future? What is your sense from your connections over there?
DR. YOUSSEF: I am, of course, deeply concerned about how the American administration is throwing Israel under the bus right now. Israel is the only democracy in a sea of dictatorships. When I went to Israel for the first time, I was absolutely amazed at how much freedom the Arabs who live in Israel have. Anybody with my background, who heard all the rhetoric from the Arab countries, goes there and become mesmerized. The Arabs are freer in Israel than in any Arab country. They are treated better than they are treated in most Arab countries. Certainly they are treated far, far, far better than the Christians are treated in Arab countries. Israel is the small democracy in the sea of dictatorships facing so many enemies. There are so many people who hate Israel that we need to be standing with Israel, supporting it and encouraging them. They feel discouraged right now. I have been to Israel a couple months ago and I am going back in three months time. In my heart I have no hatred toward anyone; I love everyone. Wherever the gospel is going to be preached, I am going to go. The truth is, Israel is in a very dangerous situation right now.
DAVID: The covenant to pray for America, the God Save America Covenant, you can find out more about that and how you can sign up by going to LeadingTheWay.org or GodSaveOurCountry.com. By the way, Dr. Youssef’s regular personal website where he blogs is MichaelYoussef.com.
Dr. Youssef, last question for you. We have talked about the America today. We have talked about the perception that the Muslim world has towards America with your background living in a Muslim country and your experience over there. So Christians are often faced with the challenge as to how to think about this. We think they are the enemy. They are trying to destroy us and therefore, we need to wipe them off the face of the map so we can have our peace and security. On the other side, we think about the great commission and God’s call to Christians to go out and evangelize and disciple the world. What is the balance there? We see documents come out from the evangelical community. You probably remember A Common Word Between Us and You, which was between Christians in the West and Islamic leaders and so forth. Do these kinds of efforts to reach out to Islam helpful?
DR. YOUSSEF: No. That is a false statement, by the way, as far as I am concerned as an evangelical Christian, a Bible believing Christian. It is a false statement. It really doesn’t have a lot of truth. There aren’t many knowledgeable Christians about Islam on that list. They are mostly liberal evangelicals, but I want to get into that.
The truth is, I have many Muslim friends and I do not compromise my faith just to keep them as my friends. I sit with them and I say this is what I believe, they tell me that is what they believe and we agree to disagree and that is fine. There is no problem with that. I would not try to water down my faith in order to meet them half way. They don’t respect that, by the way and they told me so many times. They said we don’t respect Christians who try to appease us. In the long run, it is not very helpful.
You said something that is very interesting. I meet people who say to me, let’s nuke them. But you know what, if we wipe the Muslims from the face of the earth, let me tell you something, we are not going to live in safety and security. They are not our problem. Our problem is God. Our security is in God and once we depart from Him that is where our insecurity comes in. We got bombed on September 11 because we are slowly but surely moving away from the Lord. Until we get it back in repentance and faith and be secure in Him and in Him alone, we will not know true security. That is basically my rock bottom conviction.
DAVID: I would agree with that Dr. Youssef. I really appreciate your taking the time to come on The Christian Worldview today. We are very much behind the God Save America Covenant to pray for this country starting tomorrow, Independence Day and going through November 2. Again, you can go to LeadingTheWay.org or GodSaveOurCountry.com to sign up for that covenant. I am going to be taking part in that Dr. Youssef. We so appreciate your concern for this country, not just the political side of it but the pastors, the churches, the individual Christians that we all need a spirit of revival for God to have mercy on this land and to have a sense of revival in this country. Thank you so much Dr. Youssef and God bless you.
That was Dr. Michael Youssef of Leading the Way Ministries talking about God Bless, Rather God Save America and his God Save America Prayer Covenant. I am going to ask all of our listeners today who were listening to Dr. Youssef to take part in this. I think this is a very important thing that we as Christians can be involved in. It starts July 4, Independence Day and runs through election day, November 2. As you heard, it is not just political; this is mainly about the spiritual health of this nation. This should not be beyond the pale for Christians to be getting down on their knees every day remembering our country and our people in prayer. You can commit to doing it yourself if you want to or perhaps you want to sign the covenant form on their website. It is at LeadingTheWay.org or GodSaveOurCountry.com. You just go there and put your name down to sign up. It would be great to have a whole lot of The Christian Worldview listeners take part in this. That would be a real message not only to Dr. Michael Youssef and encourage them, but also a great message to God, that we are penitent and do want to change our wicked ways.
Let’s get one quick caller before the break. Let’s go to Hattiesburg, Mississippi and Seth welcome to The Christian Worldview. What is your question regarding Michael Youssef’s comments on God Save America.
SETH: I was just going to comment on the statement you were making. God does need to save America but He does not condemn. I feel that he doesn’t condemn our country; it is our actions and the things that we do that condemn ourselves. God punishes us for that and I am totally behind you. God does need to save our country. We are a great country and our actions now have just turned to corruption. You are exactly right. I totally agree with you and Dr. Youssef that we need revival to turn this country around.
DAVID: Seth I appreciate the call and it is clear that God does bring judgment upon nations. It is all over scripture from Moab to Edam to Israel itself when they were sent off into Babylon. There has been a lot of judgment. I would like to know on what basis does he judge. Is it the political leadership; is it the people? All nations are sinful to some extent. Is it comparative?
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DAVID: We have been speaking today about God bless America or God save America? What should Christians be crying out to God to do at this point? Pastor Michael Youssef has a prayer covenant starting tomorrow, July 4 through November 2, the commitment to pray for this country every day.
I thought some of the interesting things he said were the core problem we have is spiritual, so goes the pulpit, so goes the pew. So goes the pew, so goes the people was a great comment I thought. He said, we have been focused on the blessings not the Blesser. That was an interesting point and very apt and well put. Finally he said, when we get back to repentance and faith, we will be under the blessing of God.
Let’s get back to our phone calls and Tim in Stoneypoint, North Carolina. Welcome to The Christian Worldview Tim, what is your comment on the interview with Dr. Michael Youssef?
TIM: To answer your question, two things. One, 2 Chronicles 7:14 in context applies to Jewish people at the time it was given. It does not apply to America today, to do so is an exegetical error. Two, as far as blessing and cursing, Genesis 12:1-3, I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who curse you. So how a nation treats Israel, the Jewish people, is how God blesses or curses a nation.
DAVID: That is a good point. I think you are absolutely correct Tim and I appreciate your call on the issue of 2 Chronicles that verse. I would like to read the whole passage if I have time. Once again, God is talking to Solomon here at the dedication of the temple about the Jewish nation, If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. This is directly applicable to Israel but let me put a “but” in there, I do believe there is general application there to all nations afterwards that if a nation with its political leadership, its people, its churches are humble and pray and seek God’s face and they turn from their sin, I believe there is general application here that there will be more of God’s blessing on the land rather than His judgment. That just makes sense. We see it all throughout Scripture, when there is obedience it brings blessing and disobedience brings judgment and punishment by God. There are natural consequences that go along with breaking God’s laws. So I agree Tim, it is meant for Israel and it is a difficult question to understand on what basis does God bless any nation aside from Israel because they are His chosen nation, but any other nation because all the nations are sinful including Israel.
Is it just a comparative scale that America has been more humble and has prayed more and been more Christian than the rest so we get more blessing because of that? I think it actually does have something to do with that. You look at the Christian founding of this country and the principles and values and what has been going on in this country in our past. Relatively speaking, it was more of a God-fearing nation than any other nation. That is perhaps why this nation has been so obviously blessed both with prosperity and also with freedom as well.
Let’s go to Rapid City, South Dakota and Lucille what is your question or comment regarding the interview with Dr. Michael Youssef?
LUCILLE: Thank you for taking my call. Your question, how can God bless any nation? It is the same as it has always been. God wants obedience; He wants people to admit that He is. He wants people to recognize that He exists and He wants people to recognize who He is. It is obedience that God blesses any nation. In Deuteronomy 28 that is what He told the people; He gave them conditions on which He would bless them or curse them. It was obedience to Him and He gave us the commandment by which to live. I am a teacher of Bible prophecy and I believe that this nation, this wonderful nation of The United States of America has taken God out of our schools, out of our courtrooms, out of the public domain. We have taken God out of every element of the public, so the Bible is no longer allowed in the schools. The Bible is God’s word. It gives us exactly what God wants from us. God is God. He has the right to demand obedience and we have ignored that to our own peril. If we want God to bless us, we need to come back into obedience. We need to admit that He is. He have to admit that He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross to cover the sins of all mankind and we need to come back to what He has asked in the first place from all nations and that is to obey Him because of who He is.
DAVID: That really is the bottom line of the bottom line Lucille and I appreciate that very good phone call. It is a great admonition for all of us. It starts with us as Christians individually. We need to make sure our lives are right before God. We need to be on that road of sanctification by being in the word and humbling ourselves before God by being penitent in our own hearts. It doesn’t start by pointing fingers at someone else, it starts by pointing fingers at ourselves, seeing where we are, not letting the culture make us like it. Sanctifying ourselves, humbling ourselves and then as we go into our churches, it moves out into the churches. When we get out of our churches, it goes out into our spheres of influence.
Let me give you one little snippet of something that is representative of the scary point where our country is at this point. There are lots of things we could say about what is going on in our church and out country, but I don’t know if many of you knew that in the month of June, our President, the leader of this nation, had a Presidential Proclamation announcing June as the Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender Pride Month. He says, I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists. On another gay website, they said themselves, Let’s acknowledge his statement for what it is, a recognition from the highest office in the nation that gay Americans should be proud. When you have the leader of the country normalizing and legitimizing what the Bible and God inherently calls sin, we have problems. We, as Dr. Michael Youssef, need to get on our knees and pray for this country starting today through election day, commit to do it. GodSaveOurCountry.com.
We do live in a changing and challenging America. One in which sin is called good and good is sometimes called evil, but there is one thing Christian we can always trust in; Jesus Christ and His Word are the same yesterday, today and forever.
